Sony KDL-46V3000 and KDL-40V3000: 40″ and 46″ 1080p LCD TVs

Sony announced many consumer electronics goodies on February 27 including seven new LCD TVs. But only two were capable of Full HD 1080p, so I will focus on the V-series 46″ KDL-46V3000 and 40″ KDL-40V3000. These two BRAVIA sets accept 1080p at 60fps or 24fps over HDMI. With the BRAVIA name comes the BRAVIA EX engine up-converts video that is less than 1080p to 1080p by inserting additional vertical and horizontal pixels that improve clarity and detail. This process has a name and is called Digital Reality Creation. The EX engine also enhances the video signal on a frame-by-frame basis resulting in enhanced color fidelity, improved contrast, and lower noise. Live Color Creation improves the color gamut by incorporating Wide Color Gamut (WCG) CCFLs. WCG-CCFL technology improves the phosphor coating inside the tubes to generate more vibrant color.

Most likely, the LCD TV panels were manufactured by S-LCD, the joint venture between Samsung and Sony. The panels have a good chance of being Super Patterned Vertical Alignment (S-PVA) versions but with a 10-bit driving scheme compared to just 8-bit. With 10-bit more color is generated from millions to billions. The frequency was not mentioned in the press release, so I am assuming it is the normal 60Hz. Hopefully I’m wrong and they are 120Hz.

Finally, Sony’s BRAVIA Internet Video Link must be mentioned: it allows direct TV access to Internet video content from sites such as AOL, Yahoo!, Grouper, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Sony BMG Music. The Internet Video Link module is mounted behind the TV and uses an Ethernet connection to connect directly to a router.